Jimmy Carter:
James Earl Carter Jr. was born in the small town of Plains, Georgia. He was the first president to ever be born in a hospital. Carter served on ships and submarines in the US Navy and his goal was to ultimately become the Chief of Naval Operations. While he was serving, Carter became the officer that was put in charge to lead a U.S. team to Canada to shut down the Chalk River Nuclear Reactor. In this operation, Carter and his team successfully disassembled the reactor and during his presidency, Carter explained how his experience at Chalk River helped to shape his opinions on nuclear power and weapons. After the death of his father in 1953, Carter was discharged from the Navy after serving six years. Upon returning home to Plains, Carter took over his family's business in the peanut farming industry and was considered a wealthy farmer.
Jimmy Carter, known for his big smile and self-confidence, began his political career serving on hospital, school, and library boards. Carter also served two terms in the Georgia Senate througout the 1960's and one term as Georgia's governor. During his time as Governor, Carter supported legalized abortion and was against all forms of the death penalty. In 1976, Carter entered in the presidential primaries of the Democratic Party. At this time, Carter was not a well known politician and many people thought he didn't stand a chance against the more well known candidates. Only two percent of the U.S. population even recognized Carter's name and his own mother said, "President of what?" when she was told about his intentions of running. With the Watergate Scandal fresh in the minds of the American people, Carter focused his campaign on reorganizing the government. Before the other candidates could even announce that they were running, Carter had been to 37 states and delivered over 200 speeches across the country, giving him a leap forward and proving to people that he had a good strategy. Carter was even interviewed by Playboy magazine and remains to be the only American president who has done so.
Carter chose Senator Walter F. Mondale as his potential vice president and started the race with a good lead over Ford. Ford was able to narrow the gap eventually but not in time to win the election and on November 2, 1976, Carter had defeated Ford and won the popular vote 50.1% to 48.0%. Carter also received 297 electoral votes vs. Ford's 240 votes, becoming the first President from the Deep South since the election in 1848. On January 20th of the following year, Jimmy Carter was sworn in as President by Chief Justice Warren Burger.
During his presidency, Carter bailed out the Chrysler Corporation by signing the Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of 1979. Also, during a time of high inflation, Carter canceled pay raises for military personel and installed solar panels into the White House in an effort to conserve energy and money. Along with Leonid Brezhnev, Carter signed the SALT II treaty in Vienna, Austria which called for nuclear arms reduction. The most notable conflict that Carter tried to resolve was in the Middle East which resulted in the Camp David Accords, giving back the Panama Canal. The Iran Hostage Crisis occured during the last year of Carter's presidency. This was a result of some unhappy Iranian students who were angry at the U.S. for supporting their deposed Shah. In November 1979, the students seized a group of American diplomats and officials at the embasy in Teheran. It took over a year for Carter to get the 52 American hostages released. This conflict added to Carter's defeat in the 1980 re-election against Ronald Reagan and the hostages were finally freed when Reagan took office on his Inaguration Day.
Back in 1978, Carter helped out Love Canal, a neighborbood Niagra Falls, New York. This area had been built on top of a tox waste landfill and was declared a federal emergency. About 500 houses had to be demolished as well as two schools and 800 families were evacuated to contain the area. This was the first time that something like this had ever been done before. The boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow is considered to be one of Carter's most controversial decisions during his presidency. Carter chose not to have the U.S. participate in the sporting events in response to the Soviets invasion of Afghanistan in the previous year. This became the first time that the U.S. has failed to participate in the Olympics since they were founded in 1896. In retaliation to this event, the Soviets in turn chose not to participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics which were held in Los Angeles, California and did not withdraw their soldiers from Afghanistan for another five years. When Carter chose to run for re-election in 1980, he ultimately lost to Ronald Reagan in what was considered to be the least successful campaign in history.
That next year, Carter went back home to Georgia where he continued to work on his peanut farm. Today he lives an active life and he and his wife Rosalynn volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, teach Sunday school, paint, fish, and play tennis. Carter has four children and is a great-grandfather as well. In 2002, Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize and is the only president to have won such an award after leaving his presidency. While Carter was considered by many historians to have been a failure during his presdiency, his legacy continues as his humanitarian and peace keeping efforts have made him one of the most successful former presidents in U.S. history.
I chose Jimmy Carter to research because he is a president that not very many teenagers are familiar with and I for one had never really heard of him much at all. For these reasons, I thought it would be good to learn more about him. I have to admit that Carter is not the most interesting president I have ever researched but I think it was still good to get to know him and the work he did for our country.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter
Comments